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墨書 Inktalez
Li Weiyi did not shy away from confessing his crimes.
In the interrogation room, Li Weiyi's face was ashen. With Wang Chao's consent, he chain-smoked one cigarette after another. Jiang He observed Li Weiyi's smoking habits closely; his fingers constantly shifted positions. Most of the smoke that Li Weiyi inhaled into his mouth never reached his lungs but was instead exhaled almost immediately.
Li Weiyi's fingers showed no signs of yellowing, and his teeth were quite white. Occasionally, when he took a deep drag, he would cough uncontrollably. These details made it clear that Li Weiyi was not a habitual smoker. It was evident that he was a novice at smoking.
This observation was not lost on Jiang He alone; Wang Chao, sitting next to him, noticed it as well. Wang Chao was about the same age as Jiang He but had been a smoker for ten years.
Li Weiyi awkwardly smoked, and after five cigarettes had filled the room with haze, he finally laid bare all the facts of his crimes.
He described a family with a very regular routine.
Every day at six in the morning, Wu Guifeng would rise to prepare breakfast for the family. By seven o'clock, Li Weiyi would get up to wash up and eat. Around seven-thirty, Li Weiyi would leave for work with his mother, while Wu Guifeng would head out to scavenge for scrap.
Around eleven o'clock in the morning, Li Weiyi would have lunch either outside or in the company cafeteria, while Wu Guifeng would return home with groceries. At eleven-thirty, He Huijuan would wake up from her slumber to wash up and have lunch.
By one o'clock, Wu Guifeng would finish washing the dishes and continue her scavenging, while He Huijuan would be engrossed in her phone or computer.
In the evening around six o'clock, Wu Guifeng would return home to prepare dinner and wait for her son to come back.
The time of night varied; around ten o'clock, Li Weiyi would return from work, exchange a few words with his mother, take a shower, and go to bed. Meanwhile, He Huijuan would battle in front of her computer screen until two or three in the morning before playing on her phone until exhaustion took over.
This routine had persisted for two years. During this time, they had lived almost exactly like this. Li Weiyi and He Huijuan had not engaged in any intimate relationship for two years. Their once vibrant lives had turned into stagnant waters—monotonous and dull.
Li Weiyi felt like a walking corpse in this world. He knew he wasn't articulate or good at communicating and recognized that he wasn't suited for this job. Yet deep down, he was someone who didn't want change; he understood that he was better off working diligently behind the scenes in a role that required no interaction with others.
But Li Weiyi was afraid to quit or change. The heavy mortgage loomed over him, along with a mother without any income and a wife who stayed home without working. He feared that if he changed anything, he might lose everything. In front of everyone else, he played the fool—never daring to argue with his boss or get angry with clients. He smiled broadly at everyone but never allowed himself to smile genuinely.
He told himself that life was just like this; how many hurried passersby were just like him?
Yet one can deceive others but cannot deceive oneself.
Li Weiyi was thoroughly tired of this life. Sometimes standing on the street, he thought about closing his eyes and jumping into traffic—ending it all. He had contemplated this many times but never dared to act on it.
In this world, many people live like this, struggling through life without the courage to die, yet forever losing hope for the future.
Li Weiyi walked down the street when he suddenly broke down. The breakdown of a modern person does not involve hoarse screams or frantic actions. It is like a transparent bubble that no one notices, bursting silently in the air. It is so inconspicuous that no one even acknowledges it ever existed.
Li Weiyi is that bubble.
He returned home, hoping this final refuge would provide him with some last support, even a simple word of comfort could help heal this battered bubble once more. But what he found at home was endless humiliation and scolding.
He Hui Juan offered Li Weiyi no comfort; instead, she berated him for being worthless, claiming even a dog would be more useful than him. Since He Hui Juan married Li Weiyi, no matter how harshly she insulted him or even his mother, Li Weiyi had never retorted. But this time, overwhelmed by despair, he could no longer hold back.
He looked at his wife, who only knew how to play games, feeling both anger and sadness. Recently, due to his own mistake of signing a contract without proper verification and shifting a decimal point forward, he had caused a price discrepancy of over a hundred thousand. That amount would have to be repaid by Li Weiyi himself.
With a monthly salary of only five thousand yuan, along with mortgage payments and the need to support his wife and mother-in-law, over a hundred thousand was an astronomical figure for Li Weiyi. Yet he had never mentioned this to anyone, especially not to his wife or mother.
A man's suffering is swallowed silently.
But He Hui Juan continued relentlessly. Having spent years in the online world, she could insult someone without uttering a single curse word.
Li Weiyi could no longer endure it; he lunged at his wife. This woman who had never regarded him as a man—this time he wanted to prove something to He Hui Juan. In a moment of impulse, Li Weiyi forced himself upon He Hui Juan. Perhaps she still considered him her husband; during the act, He Hui Juan did not resist.
However, after she put on her underwear, He Hui Juan uttered the most devastating words to Li Weiyi.
For him, this was his breaking point and the most inappropriate thing she could say.
It was just two words: divorce.
He had merely exercised the most basic right as a husband, yet it resulted in He Hui Juan's demand for divorce. Li Weiyi sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, looking at his wife—familiar yet strange. Even a dog would wag its tail at its owner. But after five years with this woman, she spoke such words to him.
Li Weiyi was meek and honest; he wouldn’t dare argue with others and certainly didn’t seem like someone capable of violence. Yet despite his cowardice, he had boundaries. His limits were low—almost buried in the dirt—but they were still there. When those limits were crossed, even the most docile person could become terrifying.
Li Weiyi felt an unusual calmness wash over him as he walked into the kitchen and took out a serrated knife while He Hui Juan lay on the bed. He approached her and suddenly raised the knife high before plunging it directly into her abdomen. With his other hand, he firmly covered her mouth.
He Hui Juan's eyes widened in shock; she could never have imagined that her timid husband would do something like this. In a moment of disbelief and despair, He Hui Juan ended her own life. Perhaps she would never understand that no one is without their temper.
A person's patience is like a balloon. Some people explode with anger immediately, leaving the balloon forever deflated, while others swallow their anger, causing the balloon to swell. When that balloon can no longer withstand the pressure and bursts, the person who caused it to explode must pay the price.
Do not recklessly oppress someone with a good temper; perhaps this is a life lesson that He Hui Juan would never be able to articulate.
After killing He Hui Juan, Li Weiyi sat dazedly by the bedside for a while.
In the heat of passion, one's mind often goes blank, but once he calmed down, Li Weiyi realized he had done something irreversible. Growing up in the countryside, he had always found the sight of others slaughtering pigs to be bloody and cruel, vowing to become a refined university student who would never have to engage in such livelihoods.
Li Weiyi achieved that goal, yet he never imagined he would take a life.
In a state of utter panic, Li Weiyi didn't know what to do when suddenly there was noise at the door.
Startled, Li Weiyi instinctively pulled the serrated knife out of He Hui Juan's body.
He hurriedly grabbed the new phone he had just bought for his wife to check the time and discovered it was around eleven o'clock. Li Weiyi felt somewhat reassured but also anxious. He knew his mother should be returning home now. Wu Guifeng had a key; if she came in, she would see her son had killed her daughter-in-law.
Li Weiyi thought about suicide; he would rather die than let his mother witness this scene. He rushed out, intending to lock the door behind him so that his mother couldn't enter, giving him time to end his own life before she could force her way in.
He quickly shoved his phone into his pocket, not even pausing to set down the knife as he dashed outside.
The door opened.
Wu Guifeng, having closed the door behind her, saw the knife in her son's hand, noticed the blood on it, and recognized the madness in his eyes.
In an instant, Wu Guifeng understood: her son had killed someone.
Li Weiyi was the only person from their village to attend university and was regarded as the smartest and most capable of achieving great things. Yet both Li Weiyi and Wu Guifeng knew that nowadays, university students hardly earned more than butchers. What did it truly mean to achieve great things?
In that fleeting moment, countless thoughts raced through both their minds.
Li Weiyi suddenly recalled the words he had said to his mother when he was still young: "When I grow up, I want to go to college, buy a big house in the city, and bring you and Dad to live with me."
When ideals become reality, they are no longer as pure and simple as they once were.
Li Weiyi rushed forward and plunged the kitchen knife into his mother's body. Sometimes death is the most effective solution. Li Weiyi knew that once this incident got out, his mother would be drowned in the spittle of the villagers. His mother had lived her life with dignity in the village, always doing things that left no room for criticism.
Li Weiyi understood that his mother would rather die.
Wu Guifeng made no struggle; she leaned against the shoe cabinet.
Li Weiyi did not have the courage to look at his mother. He burst out of the door and wandered aimlessly down the street. He felt dazed, like a butterfly lost in direction. His phone rang in his pocket; it was a friend of He Hui Juan trying to reach her. Suddenly feeling scared, he tossed the phone aside onto the road.
Then a call came through to Li Weiyi's phone. It was from a police officer, and Li Weiyi quickly understood what had happened.
He wanted to turn himself in, but he didn't dare.
He thought about committing suicide, but he didn't dare.
In the end, he was still a coward.
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